The Government’s latest carbon emissions reduction legislation - the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme - comes into force next April. If your organisation was supplied with electricity through a half-hourly meter in 2008 you will be affected.

CRC requires that participating organisations buy carbon allowances each year with money being returned to them depending on where they lie in an energy performance league table of other participating companies.  The CRC Scheme is organisation based, not site based. This means that the highest parent organisation in your company is required to register on behalf of all of your subsidiaries or sites.

If your organisation has at least one half-hourly meter then you must first calculate if you will need to be a participating member and let DECC know your position.

The threshold for full participation is a total electricity consumption of 6,000MWh through half-hour meters in 2008; so you will need to collate your 2008 electricity consumption records from all these types of meters within your organisation to see if you qualify. Even half-hour recording meters that you have installed yourself count towards the total.

Some of the issues surrounding CRC qualification and participation are quite complex, so you should take independent advice. The NFU is providing help for farmers via its NFU Energy service. A user guide for CRC is available from the Department of Energy and Climate Change website www.decc.gov.uk.